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CONTEMPT FOR THE MEDIA

 

By Former Arizona State Senator Karen Johnson
August 8, 2012
NewsWithViews.com

Hans Christian Andersen’s famous fairy tale, “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” tells the story of two charlatans who persuade the emperor to let them weave beautiful new garments for him. In reality, the charlatans are weaving nothing. They are only pretending as they perpetrate a huge hoax on the emperor and his court. Anyone who could not see the lovely cloth, said the charlatans, was stupid. Not wishing to be thought stupid, the emperor and his court all persuade themselves that they see the clothes. They went along with what they were told by the charlatans.

Today, a perfect equivalent to the fairy-tale charlatans exists in the reporters for the mainstream media. Today’s media charlatans weave beautiful but false tales and mock anyone who doesn’t accept their latest hoax. Lacking the time and resources to dig deeper, or merely lacking discernment, many members of the public, not wishing to be thought stupid, accept what they are told by the media charlatans. It doesn’t matter whether the whopper du jour is that the emperor has new clothes or that the current media message is false, a lie is still a lie.

When candidate Obama was found to have associated with domestic terrorist Bill Ayres, the media pretended it wasn’t so. Not wishing to appear stupid, the public accepted the denials.

When discrepancies appeared in Obama’s birth record, the media denied it and demonized anyone who pursued the story. Not wishing to appear stupid, Congress accepted the media story, and refused to investigate.

And so it goes, the media pushing one lie after another. The mother of all media lies, of course, is 9/11. On that grim day, millions of Americans watched the World Trade Center collapse straight down into its own footprint. The collapse demonstrated 14 perfect characteristics of a controlled demolition. Some viewers recognized it as such as they watched the buildings disintegrate into clouds of explosive dust on live television. Some mainstream media reporters, such as Dan Rather, also noticed the similarities to controlled demolition, and they spontaneously reported it that way as the drama unfolded on September 11th.

But eventually the media masters spun a different story. According to the media, the World Trade Center Towers all collapsed as a result of fires. This despite the fact that steel skyscrapers don’t collapse from fire. Never have, never will. Congress and many members of the public, however, not wishing to appear stupid, accepted the official media story.

But wait! Hundreds of REAL experts (architects, engineers, physicists, and other scientists) then stepped forward to study the evidence at the building site and concluded that the World Trade Center buildings, including Building 7, did indeed come down as a result of controlled demolition. The real experts found that real explosives had been placed in the buildings to cause them to collapse into a neat pile, in the same manner as buildings that are demolished by wrecking crews. These real experts reported their real forensic and eye-witness evidence. The media charlatans ignored them, however, and stuck to the hoax. And many Americans, not wishing to be thought stupid, accepted the media lie.

Style without substance. Talent without truth. Skill without integrity. Today’s news is filled with lies ... and with sex, Hollywood trash, buffoonery, and adolescent nonsense. But the corruption goes beyond the newsrooms and editorial desks. It pervades the entire broad spectrum of the mainstream media, including the entertainment media, as well. Whether you seek to relax with music, television, sports, or movies, you cannot escape the lies cultivated by every branch of today’s media.

A perfect example is the July 4th PBS broadcast a few weeks ago of the annual Independence Day celebration from the capitol grounds in Washington, D.C. This is our yearly opportunity to pay tribute to the heroes and patriots who gave their blood to birth our nation and earn the freedom we enjoy. It is a celebration of liberty and the greatness of America. The program is always filled with patriotic songs, military marches, and hymns of praise to God for the blessings of freedom. Well, almost always. This year’s program included not one but two selections from the 1961 movie musical, “West Side Story.”

Many are probably unaware that “West Side Story,” a tale of Puerto Rican immigrants in New York City, has enjoyed a recent revival after being discovered and embraced by today’s Hispanic immigrants. Indeed, “West Side Story” has become the darling of the Hispanic community. Actress Jennifer Lopez is said to have watched the film 37 times while growing up. Others proclaim that West Side Story “captures the essence of the immigrant experience in the United States.” That it “gives immigrants a voice.”

The first selection from West Side Story that was performed on July 4th was a vocal performance of “Tonight,” by Matthew Morrison and Kelli O’Hara. I am hard-pressed to explain why anyone would choose that particular song (a love song about star-crossed lovers) for a 4th of July celebration. If that were the only “West Side Story” selection performed that night, it might simply be written off as a weird choice. But performing TWO musical numbers from West Side Story makes a point. And that point is clearly expressed in the lyrics of the second number from “West Side Story,” which was “America,” a lively, song-and-dance number that highlights one of the broad social themes of the play: discrimination and the difficulty of assimilation.

Yes, one of the messages of West Side Story is discrimination in America. The producers of this year’s July 4th national celebration apparently didn’t have the nerve to openly rant against their country during its birthday party or to ask anyone to sing the actual lyrics of “America.” The orchestra simply played the musical score. So, I reprint the words here so you can see what PBS offered as a tribute to the brave Founders of our nation:

I like to be in America,
Okay by me in America,
Everything free in America—
For a small fee in America.

Buying on credit is so nice.
One look at us and they charge twice.
I’ll have my own washing machine.
What will you have, though, to keep clean?

Skyscrapers bloom in America.
Cadillacs zoom in America.
Industry boom in America.
Twelve in a room in America.

Lots of new housing with more space.
Lots of doors slamming in our face.
I’ll get a terrace apartment.
Better get rid of your accent.

Life can be bright in America.
If you can fight in America.
Life is all right in America.
If you’re all white in America.

Here you are free and you have pride.
Long as you stay on your own side.
Free to be anything you choose.
Free to wait tables and shine shoes.

Everywhere grime in America,
Organized crime in America,
Terrible time in America.
You forget I’m in America.

What, you may ask, does any of that have to do with the 4th of July? Well ... nothing. While West Side Story is certainly entertaining and offers thoughtful social commentary, it has nothing to do with the message of Independence Day. Offered as it was at an Independence Day celebration, it became another chance for the Left to slap America in the face. While discrimination certainly exists in every nation on the planet that is inhabited by human beings, discrimination is certainly not the message of American independence. The message of July 4th is heroism, patriotism, sacrifice, noble character, and liberty. Somebody at PBS forgot that. Or maybe not. More likely, the entertainment media just saw it as an opportunity to shove another lie in our faces, this one being that our country is racist, wicked and worthless.

Meanwhile, did anyone notice that the media charlatans delivered a monumental insult to America on July 4, 2012? Perhaps some of those old enough to remember the lyrics to “America” did. But, not wishing to appear stupid, nobody has raised the slightest objection to the charlatans telling another lie about our nation.

If you feel like the media is waging war against us, you’re right. Mass communication is an outgrowth of the psychological warfare techniques developed by the U.S. Dept. of Defense in the 19th century.[1] The techniques were designed to control large populations:

“U.S. military, propaganda, and intelligence agencies ... saw mass communication as an instrument for persuading or dominating targeted groups. They understood ‘communication’ as little more than a form of transmission into which virtually any type of message could be plugged (once one had mastered the appropriate techniques) to achieve ideological, political, or military goals.”[2]

The purpose of mass communication is to craft a message to persuade or coerce an audience to a particular way of thinking, as well as to deliver consumers to advertisers so as to enhance the sale of products. Once you understand that the underlying principle of mass communication is the notion of “employing communication principally as an instrument of domination,”
[5] it’s a lot easier to reject the propagandized messages spewed out by the mass media every day.

Wilbur Schramm, considered the father of communication studies, worked in the U.S. Office of War Information during World War II, where he studied the use of propaganda in mass communication as a means of manipulating the public. “Propaganda,” he once wrote, “is an instrument of social control.”[4]

For at least five years after World War II, the terms “propaganda” and “psychological warfare” were used interchangeably, while scholars argued about their definitions. To most social scientists at the time, “psychological warfare” and “propaganda” were the same thing. Propaganda and psychological warfare were then and are now among the major techniques employed in mass communication. To the degree that the media showers us with lies and propaganda every day, one might say that we are experiencing psychological warfare on a daily basis.

Using the sophisticated and manipulative techniques of mass communication, many dictators have waged psychological warfare against their own people. In 1921, with the Russian people facing near starvation, Lenin authorized a committee of some of the most prominent Russians to plead for foreign food aid. Once the food started to arrive from foreign nations, Lenin turned on the leaders of his food committee, exiled them to various parts of the Soviet empire, and began a propaganda campaign against them:

“Instruct all newspapers to begin insulting these people, and heap opprobrium upon them, accusing them of being closet White Guard supporters and bourgeois do-gooders who are much keener to travel abroad than to help at home. In general, make them look ridiculous and mock them at least once a week for the next two months.”[3]

Does that sound like a familiar media tactic? Can you think of any excellent, freedom-loving, patriotic American politicians who have suffered similar attacks? Yeah, I can, too.

The 2008 election of Barack Obama is a case study in how the mainstream media manipulates the general public. There were clues galore early in the campaign that Obama was unfit and even dangerous. But print and network reporters were in love with the man, and they stood on their heads trying to cultivate a favorable image of him. They ignored important matters like the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, and all those missing background documents (college records, travel documents, draft registration, Illinois legislative history, birth certificate, etc.) while they filled the airwaves and newspapers with adoring articles about his charisma, charm, and wonderfulness.
After a summer campaign of nonstop media hype for Obama, in contrast to unceasing demonization of Sarah Palin, and the marginalization of the wretched John McCain, the majority of the voting public took the bait and voted for Obama, thus demonstrating that the media, through the sophisticated techniques of mass communication, really do have the ability to manipulate the masses into slavishly doing what the media masters tell them to do.

We are engaged in psychological warfare every day. Not a battle with guns and swords, but a battle between virtue and hedonism, between truth and lies, between intellectual honesty and propaganda. Psychological warfare is the perfect term for this battle, with the mainstream media leading the charge for the army of liars who want to destroy our culture. While there have certainly been evil, lying tyrants in the past who were willing to target their freedom-loving opponents, there has never been a time in history when such destructive psychological attacks were disseminated on such a broad scale with such overwhelmingly harmful results. Through the techniques of mass communication, the most innocent person can be dangled before the public eye, morphed into a demon, and maligned and destroyed before millions of eager viewers who are all-too-often unable to sift through the lies. Character-assassination-through-the-media is as effective as a bullet in eliminating the opposition. Mass communication is the vehicle for the modern-day equivalent of a show trial that eviscerates anyone who gets in the way. Never underestimate the raging power of the media lest you be sucked into its jaws and chewed alive.

Today’s media charlatans are not just morons, they are dangerous. The muckrakers have changed residence and relocated themselves from the bowels of the sewers into the blast furnace of Hell. They don’t even try to hide their agenda anymore. They just beat us with it each day and propagandize their way to glory. They reach into every home and whisper into every ear. They have the power to change the character of a nation and the nature of our government. They can throw an election in one direction or another. Their influence knows no bounds.

I have to borrow from Shakespeare in order to express my deep and utter disdain for the media: “Scorn and defiance, slight regard, contempt.”[6] That line, of course, was addressed to the French King who demanded that the English surrender. The English King, Henry, spit on the notion of surrendering to the French. I likewise spit on the notion of surrendering to the media.

Freedom has a price tag. For us, the price may be as small as turning off the TV and replacing some of our leisure time with civic involvement. The patriots of old had to fight a bloody Revolution to preserve their freedom (and ours). Our duty today is to stand against the modern weapons of psychological warfare and propaganda. That is, to stand against the media. The sweet prize is liberty.

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This summer, I am rereading Bernard Goldberg’s two best-selling books on liberal media bias, aptly named Bias and A Slobbering Love Affair Starring Barack Obama. These books aren’t new. Bias came out in 2002 and Love Affair in 2009. But if you haven’t read them, or even if you have, I suggest that everyone find a copy of each right now and read them [again]. Reading Bias and Love Affair are a bit like soaking in a hot bath or taking a valium. When the lying commentators make you want to throw the good china at your TV, these books will calm you down and reassure you that you’re not going crazy. Bias, a tell-all, insider expose of the bias in the major television networks, and Love Affair, a dissection of the slanted, unprofessional media coverage of the 2008 Obama campaign, will give you plenty of laughs while validating what you already know: that the mainstream media are cravenly biased in favor of the Left-wing political agenda. But whether you read the books or not, know this: the mainstream media are liars. They have declared war against you, your country, and your personal liberty. Know your enemy. Do not surrender to the media charlatans, spinning their web of lies, trying to persuade you that the emperor has new clothes and other such fairy tales.

� 2012 Karen Johnson - All Rights Reserved

Footnotes:

1. Christopher Simpson, Science of Coercion, Oxford University Press, 1994, pp. 3-4.
2. Ibid., pp. 5-6.
3. Stephane Courtois, Nicolas Werth, Jean-Louis Panne, Andrzej Paczkowski, Karek Bartosek, Jean-Louis Margolin, The Black Book of Communism, English Translation by Jonathan Murphy and Mark Kramer, Harvard University, 1999, p. 123.
4. Simpson, Science of Coercion, p. 115.
5. Ibid., p. 86.
6. Shakespeare, Henry V, Act II, Scene 4, Line 117.

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Karen Johnson served in the Arizona legislature for 12 years, from 1997 through 2004 (AZ House of Representatives) and 2005 - 2008 (AZ Senate). Her all-time favorite committee assignment was chairing the Federal Mandates and States' Rights Committee. During her service in the legislature, she supported the Second Amendment, individual, property and of course states rights, as well as the Right to Life, and she still does. Karen and her husband, Jerry, have 11 children and 35 grandchildren. She believes strongly in the doctrine of liberty and does not desire to be tethered to ANY particular party.

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E-Mail: Kstjohnson747@gmail.com


 

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I have to borrow from Shakespeare in order to express my deep and utter disdain for the media: “Scorn and defiance, slight regard, contempt.” That line, of course, was addressed to the French King who demanded that the English surrender. The English King, Henry, spit on the notion of surrendering to the French. I likewise spit on the notion of surrendering to the media.